Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (born February 15, 1934) is an influential Iranian politician, businessman and former President. Currently he holds the position of Chairman of the Assembly of Experts (a deliberative body of Mujtahids that is charged with electing the Supreme Leader of Iran) and Chairman the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran (an unelected administrative assembly that resolves legislative conflicts between the Majlis and the Council of Guardians).

He served as President of Iran from 1989 to 1997. In 2005 he ran for a third term in office, winning the first round of elections but ultimately losing to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the run-off round of the 2005 election.

Rafsanjani is heavily associated with the Iranian business class and is hostile to Ahmandinejad and the more ideological tendency in the Islamic Republic[citation needed]. Rafsanjani is best described as a pragmatic conservative, who supports a centrist position domestically and a moderate position internationally, seeking to avoid conflict with the United States.

Early life

He was born in the village of Bahraman near the city of Rafsanjan in Kerman Province to a poor family of pistachio farmers.

In 1948, when Rafsanjani was fourteen years old, his parents sent him to the Shia holy city of Qom to enter seminary life. It was there that he began attending classes taught by Ruhollah Khomeini, under whom Rafsanjani studied Islamic law, ethics, and science. From this time forward, Rafsanjani became dedicated to Khomeini’s cause, whose aim was to establish a constitutional theocracy, and soon became a major figure in his circle.

Prior to the Iranian Revolution, Rafsanjani had been jailed five times over a period of fifteen years from 1964 to 1979 for subversive activities against the Imperial government.

Islamic Revolution

Together with Mohammad Javad Bahonar, Mohammad Beheshti, Morteza Motahhari, and Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardebili, he became a key member of Iran’s Revolutionary Council at the beginning of the new Islamic Republic, and became the first speaker of the Majlis of Iran , new Parliament, serving until 1989.

He was one of the main figures in the Iran contra scandal but Khomeini issued a command banning any investigation about him.

Rafsanjani was a founding member of the Islamic Republic Party, established soon after the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The party advocated the establishment of a theocratic Islamic state, in contrast to the secularism of the Provisional Revolutionary Government.

Presidency

Rafsanjani served as President of Iran from August 17, 1989 to 1997, and was the first President of Iran to step down officially, having completed his term in office. Of his predecessors, Abolhassan Banisadr was successfully impeached, Mohammad Ali Rajai was assassinated. Until the election of Rafsanjani, Ali Khamenei was both the President and Supreme Leader, and officially stepped down as President of Iran, about two month prior to completing of his presidential term.

After presidency

In 2000, in the first election after the end of his presidency, Rafsanjani ran again for Parliament but was not among the 30 representatives of Tehran elected, as announced by the Iranian Ministry of the Interior. The Council of Guardians then ruled numerous ballots void and were able to get him elected as the 30th representative. Rafsanjani thus became a Member of Parliament once more, but resigned before being sworn in as an MP. He explained that he felt he was “able to serve the people better in other posts”.

Rafsanjani is currently the Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council, that resolves legislative issues between the Majlis and the Council of Guardians.

In December 2006, Rafsanjani was elected to the Assembly of Experts representing Tehran with more than 1.5 million votes, which was more than any other candidate. Ahmadinejad opponents won majority of local election seats.

On September 4, 2007 he was elected chairman of the Assembly of Experts, the body that selects Iran’s supreme leader, in what is considered a blow to the partisans of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Androgenic alopecia

Although Ayatollahs are not permitted to shave their beards, Rafsanjani’s condition of Androgenic alopecia has not permitted Rafsanjani to grow much facial hair. This has become the butt of many jokes, satire and comedy around Iran along with his background of pistachio farming. Although Khamenei issued a decree banning jokes around this and his background, he still continues to be joked about throughout Iran.

Wikipedia